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Debbie Stoery: A Dedication to the Technical Side of Figure Skating
BY KENT MCDILL
When one is asked to consider their lifetime, they may concentrate on the passage of time, remembering where they once were and ruminating on how they got to where they are today.
But a lifetime is made of moments. Taking time to consider the most important moments of your life will get you to the same eventual place, perhaps with a greater appreciation of what you went through.
It’s similar to the question of looking at the forest or at the trees.
Debbie Stoery, one of the most learned technical figure skating coaches in the history of the sport, is the honoree of the 2023 Professional Skater’s Associationi Shulman Award for LIfetime Acheivement.
In a wide-ranging conversation with PS Magazine, Stoery considered her lifetime in skating as a whole while pointing at particular moments along the way that make her story compelling.
Balancing Coaching and Education
Let’s start at the very beginning Stoery was born into a family of figure skaters. Her mother was a member of the Chicago Professional Skater’s Club and ice-danced with the Skokie Valley Skaters Club. Her father was
President of the Wagon Wheel Figure Skating Club (an organization which to this day maintains connections through a running email conversation). Her sister was an accomplished competitor in figures, freestyle and ice dance. Her brother grew up to work as an ice skating equipment provider. Debbie herself had been coaching since the age of 17 at the Northbrook, Ill., Sports Center, where she is currently on staff.
After high school, Stoery took a year off from formal education to concentrate on being a figure skating coach and judge. But college called to her and she enrolled at Northwestern University, working toward a degree in theatre and interpretation. She was also pursuing a dance minor, and was studying music and dance theory.
She then had the first pivotal moment of her coaching life.
In May of 1972, at the age of 18, Stoery attended the first Professional Skater’s Guild of America convention In New York. There she heard from guest speaker Dr. Margery Turner, a professor from Hunter College. The topic was “What you should study if you are serious about coaching.”
BOOM!
“Some of the items she listed were already in my dance major,’’ Stoery said. “But her list included kinesiology. I found the sports science curriculum at Northwestern, and I became very enthusiastic about pursuing that information, especially the respiratory response to exercise.”
Stoery made a habit of attending every major figure skating competition she could, even though she had no students of her own at those events. In the winter of her sophomore year at college, she attended the U.S. National Championships and boldly chose (she likes to say “had the balls”) to introduce herself to former Olympic champion and then famed coach Pierre Brunet, who was in the States working with Janet Lynn. “I asked him if I could serve an apprenticeship under him, and he told me to call him after the World Championships.”
Which she did.
“So I took off the spring quarters of my sophomore and junior years at Northwestern to understudy with him, taking on ice lessons, bringing my students to work with him, observing his lessons with students, and then enjoying afternoon tea in the rink cafe watching him draw diagrams on napkins. I was a young, intelligent and enthusiastic coach in the right place at the right time.”
It probably is more accurate to say she put herself in the right place at the right time. She was not one to have events happen to her. They usually happened because of her.
The Accomplishments
Stoery’s pursuit of an understanding of the science revolving around figure skating allowed her to reach unique levels of coaching expertise. Her list of accomplishments is long and varied. She revels in the outcomes of her work while trying to downplay her own importance in the events.
In 1976, Stoery became the youngest coach (24) to pass the Master Rating in Figures and Freestyle before a judging panel of five men (she credits her time with Brunet for being skilled enough to pass). She was the first coach to take any Moves in the Field exam, doing so in front of a panel of judges who were the co-inventors of the Moves.
She became a judge for Masters exams, and she discovered “the real blessing has been to affirm the devotion that each candidate embodies in the pursuit of excellence, whether passing or not.” With that attitude, she employed the thinking of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who told us “it’s the journey, not the destination”.
In 1975, Stoery was asked by Nadine Eliott to become the first editor of the PSGA newsletter, despite having no journalism nor editorial background. In the 1980s, Stoery was asked by Kathy Casey to join the PSA Technical Committee, during which she placed herself in the eye of a storm as she publicly defended the possibility of eliminating school figures from the skating curriculum.
Stoery’s role with the PSA again indicates her open-hearted attitude toward the science of skating. Stoery spent five years as the Chair of the PSA Sports Science Committee, while working with her skaters and providing scientific insight to other coaches in the form of articles for the PS Magazine. She developed a 20-page handbook the PSA turned into the United States Olympic Committee in order to receive a significant Sport Sciences grant for the PSA.
When she turned 60 years old, she did what anyone might do at that stage of life: she re-enrolled at Northwestern University to take classes in neurophysiology and neuropsychology. “My educational goal has been to be able to ask the right question to the right people and understand their answers,’’ she said to explain her academic pursuit.
Pointing directly to her work as a technician, Stoery had four students recognized as the first in the world to perform a specific technical element—at Junior Worlds in 1980 and 1982 and at two other U.S. competitions in 1984 and 1985. “I do feel that anyone in any sport who breaks a barrier is making a significant contribution that far exceeds the value of merely winning,’’ Stoery said.
Over the years, Stoery played a role in the development of Olympic skaters including Caryn Kadavy, Nicole Bobek, Melissa Gregory and Evan Lysacek.
In Her Own Words
Stoery is very quick to point to her academic prowess and ability to learn quickly as a key contributor to her success as a skating coach. At the same time, she is extremely uncertain exactly why she was honored as the LIfetime Achievement award winner for 2023 (she had been nominated twice before).
“My personal expectations were extraordinarily moderate,’’ Stoery said. “I felt so fortunate to be gifted as an academic prodigy. So many things came easily to me, not as a skater but as a coach. But I didn’t trust my own ability to succeed.
“My first goal was could I teach an axel,’’ she said. “Then I found myself the youngest person to ever pass the master rating, the youngest person on our international team, and I wondered “How did I get here?” My only answer to myself was I applied myself. I loved what I was doing.”
Stoery’s coaching philosophy lies at the heart of her own attitude toward education.
When she first learned Moves in the Field, Stoery accepted the system while fussing out ways to improve it. “I would always look for the advantages in a new system rather than reject it,’’ she said.
As a coach, Stoery expected her skaters to think for themselves rather than just take the coach’s word for what was expected. “My goal is that (her skaters) have the knowledge base and the desire and expectation to improve on themselves. My greatest moment is when a skater comes by and asks if they can show me something they have been working on outside of my influence.”
And Now, For Her Next Act…
Today, Stoery continues her coaching by covering a wide swath of the northwest suburbs of Chicago, working at rinks in Glenview, Northbrook, Winnetka and Wilmette. She is also planning her own October wedding. “I have wondered why I was chosen for this award,’’ Stoery said. “I hope that I was chosen on the basis not only of my achievements but rather largely in consideration of the character and dignity that I have displayed on a consistent basis. I know that I have contributed locally and globally to coaches’ education, set an example of prioritizing athlete health and safety, promoted academic interest with enthusiasm, and earned the trust and response of my students because they know that I cared about them as people.”
